The Search: How Google & Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business & Transformed Our Culture

What does the world want? According to John Battelle, a company that answers that question can unlock the most intractable riddles of both business and culture. And for the past few years, that's exactly what Google has been doing.

Syrup

When Scat comes up with an idea for the hottest new soda ever, he's sure he'll retire as the next savvy marketing success story. But in the treacherous waters of corporate America, there are no sure things. Suddenly Scat finds himself scrambling to save not only his idea, but his yet-to-be-realized career. With the help of a scarily beautiful and brainy girl called 6, he sets out on a mission to reclaim the fame and fortune that, time and again, elude him.

There are two "Max Barry"s at work. The first we will call "MAX" because he writes really amazing books like Jennifer Government and Lexicon. Then there is the second we will call "max" who writes junk like Syrup and Machine Man. The two books of the second Max are terrible lame stories. You should avoid those. But you must read/listen to the books of the first because Lexicon and Jennifer Government are awesome.

For you Max Barry readers - where does that place the book Company? In my opinion, it is somewhere in between, good, clever, and interesting, but not awesome.

The myth of innovation is that brilliant ideas leap fully formed from the minds of geniuses. The reality is that most innovations come from a process of rigorous examination through which great ideas are identified and developed before being realized as new offerings and capabilities. This is not a book by designers for designers; this is a book for creative leaders seeking to infuse design thinking into every level of an organization's products or service to drive new alternatives for business and society.

....You can transform the word by using design thinking to design solutions to colossal problems which non-designers can't touch. Everyone like Edison who has done anything great has now been rebranded as a design thinker. Design is cool. Design thinking is amazingly powerful, but you mere mortals cannot understand it....

But they avoided really explaining what "design" and "design thinking" really are beyond ... learn from the user ... and make lots of prototypes.

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes

Until about 1800, the West and the Islamic realm were like two adjacent, parallel universes, each assuming itself to be the center of the world while ignoring the other. As Europeans colonized the globe, the two world histories intersected and the Western narrative drove the other one under. The West hardly noticed, but the Islamic world found the encounter profoundly disrupting.

Food: A Love Story

Stand-up comedian and author Jim Gaffigan has made his career rhapsodizing over the most treasured dishes of the American diet ("choking on bacon is like getting murdered by your lover") and decrying the worst offenders ("kale is the early morning of foods"). Fans flocked to his New York Times best-selling book Dad Is Fat to hear him riff on fatherhood but now, in his second book, he will give them what they really crave - his thoughts on all things culinary(ish).

Um, this is really boring. He talks about all of the food that is bad for you and wonderful it tastes. But it does not have the magic personal style from his stand-up routines. So it just rushes over story, after story, after story, after story, after story ... about food. I just gave up half way through. Not funny.

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker

Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history. He accessed computers and networks at the world’s biggest companies—and however fast the authorities were, Mitnick was faster, sprinting through phone switches, computer systems, and cellular networks. He spent years skipping through cyberspace, always three steps ahead and labeled unstoppable.

Very interesting tromp through the adventures and addictions of a phone and computer hacker. By the end I was convinced that he was a danger to national security. Thank heavens he turned his talent to helping defend systems.

14

There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment. Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much. At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbor across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s.

The Long Run: One Man's Attempt to Regain his Athletic Career-and His Life - by Running the New York City Marathon

On the morning of December 22, 2005, New York City firefighter Matt Long was cycling to work when he was struck by and sucked under a 20-ton bus making an illegal turn. The injuries he sustained pushed him within inches of death. Miraculously, after five months in the hospital and more than 40 operations, Matt was able to start his recovery. This book chronicles Matt's road to recovery as he teaches himself to walk again and, a mere three years later, to run in the 2008 New York City Marathon.

Like many books about living in New York City, the author treats absolutely everything that happens in a normal person's life like it is amazing just because it happened in New York. If the same events were told of a person living in Iowa, it would be called boring.

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories.

This book has caused quite a stir among business leaders. So I had to read it. It is a difficult book to stick with. But every chapter reveals some facts, analyses, or opinions that are very enlightening. The author is French so you get a very different perspective on history and the objectives of an ideal society. A fair distribution of assets is never possible. I think the author recognizes this. For every possible policy to balance assets, the author provides historical examples of why that will not work in the long-run. In the end I am learning that societies have always been very unbalanced in the distribution of wealth and assets. Only the degree changes, but not the basic fact ... it is almost a law of economics.

The most striking fact is the comparison of incomes and asset ownership.

Top 10% of Income Earners, are the owners of 60% of all real assets. Middle 40% of Income, owns about 35% of all real assetsBottom 50% of Income, own about 5% of assets.

This is a very big chunk of the population that are really poor. This extreme difference is the norm in many countries and across many time periods. Only the exact numbers change.

Machine Man

Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It's not a tragedy. It's an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. Better parts. Prosthetist Lola Shanks loves a good artificial limb. In Charlie, she sees a man on his way to becoming artificial everything. But others see a madman. Or a product. Or a weapon. A story for the age of pervasive technology, Machine Man is a gruesomely funny unraveling of one man's quest for ultimate self-improvement.

I really like Max Barry's stories. But this one ... not so much. Imagine working on a story and you draw a line down the middle of the paper. You put the exciting parts on the right side and the dull details on the left side. Then you throw away the right side and white the entire story just with dull details. That would be this book.

He did some interesting development of a couple of characters. But all of them do dull stuff over and over again.

My thoughts - skip this and go read Lexicon or Jennifer Government. Both much more interesting and they kept the exciting parts in.

Lexicon

At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren't taught history, geography, or mathematics - at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science. Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as "poets": adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.

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